A selection of weekly articles by top Bahamian commentators.

March 24, 2009

PLP Contradictions Over the Pindling Legacy

by Larry Smith

Just over 20 years ago, a group of top British investigative journalists left their jobs at the Sunday Times to piece together the fantastic tale of the cocaine trade in Colombia, the Bahamas and Miami.

Their explosive 1988 book - the Cocaine Wars - described how Carlos Lehder, the Colombian cartel's transport chief, took control of an island in the Exumas "while the government of Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling did its best to help him feel at home."

The story goes back to the early 1970s. Within a year of independence, Bahamian police were warning that drug trafficking was a "serious«problem," a US Senate report noted, "and by 1979, that problem was a crisis....both narcotics smuggling and government corruption grew at an extraordinary rate."

One famous Miami-based trafficker, nicknamed Kojak, told the Senate investigation that he had paid off Bahamian authorities "from the lowest ranking officers to the highest politicians." In fact, the chief of the Bahamian police drug task force himself, ACP Howard Smith, was on Kojak's regular payroll, according to testimony.

"The security of this country is being threatened by armed foreign criminals," a confidential report noted in early 1979. "The Bahamas is being deluged with drugs."

And the plain fact is that all of the evidence collected over the years has identified two men - both now dead - as chiefly responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs. They were Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling and his cigar-chomping crony, Everette Bannister.

According to the authors of the Cocaine Wars, "it is fair to assume that they both felt they were owed something by the Bahamas because, when the time was right, they pursued those schemes with the rapaciousness of creditors out to collect a debt long overdue."

As the authors note, "If in 1979 there was an incursion of armed criminals, by 1980 it had become an invasion."

A review of Sir Lynden's personal finances by the 1984 Commission of Inquiry in Nassau found that he had spent eight times his reported total earnings from 1977 to 1984. According to the Inquiry: "The prime minister and Lady Pindling have received at least $57.3 million in cash. Explanations for some of these deposits were given... but could not be verified."

Other investigations turned up even more startling evidence. Witnesses told of the "incalculable millions of dollars taken and received by every corrupt official and politician in Everette Bannister's pocket—and by 'the Man', the prime minister who always got his share."

Gorman Bannister, the son of Pindling's longtime "consultant" and bag man, was one of those who helped the authors of the Cocaine Wars write their story. He also testified before a US Senate subcommittee on narcotics trafficking in 1987.

The sheer scale of corruption was unprecedented. As former PLP parliamentarian Edmund Moxey said during the Commission of Inquiry, "Pindling and his crew make the Bay Street Boys look like schoolchildren." And a report by the US State Department concluded that the drug trade accounted for at least 10 per cent of the Bahamian economy, including political payoffs, overheads and investments.

Everette Bannister had returned to the Bahamas from the US after the PLP won the 1967 general election. His influence began to grow when fugitive American financier Robert Vesco moved to Nassau in 1972 and set up a dummy bank to channel bribes and payoffs to PLP bigwigs so he could avoid extradition. Bannister's connections proved helpful in this regard.

Within a year the bank had advanced $50 million in unsecured loans that were never repaid, the US Senate report said. And Bannister had gained a reputation as someone who could provide access to the top for the right price.

Norman's Cay lies about 50 miles from Nassau, just outside the boundaries of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. In fact, the island was touted as a headquarters for the park by the 1958 scientific survey that recommended the creation of the Bahamas National Trust. It was a popular anchorage for visiting yachts and was first developed in the mid-1960s as a small resort community with a clubhouse and marina.

According to Phil Kniskern, a developer quoted in the 1991 book Turning the Tide by Sidney Kirkpatrick, "Norman's is special...Ten minutes after landing you can be bonefishing in the pond, or diving on the reef. And it's only 19 minutes from Nassau and a little over an hour from Miami."

In other words - an out of the way yet strategic location. And in 1978 a Bahamian company called International Dutch Resources began buying up land there. IDR was set up for Lehder by a regular trust company in Nassau, which managed his working capital. And Kniskern, along with all the other lawful residents, was eventually forced to leave Norman's Cay.

By the end of 1979, the island was home to Lehdèr's gangsters, who drove ordinary visitors away at gunpoint. Lëhder built ä large hangar with cocaine storage faculties. A 3,300-foot runway was protected by radar, bodyguards and attack dogs for the fleet of aircraft under his command. Cocaine shipments from Colombia arrived on the island every hour of every day, and Lehder's personal wealth mounted into the billions.

Witnesses at Lehder's 1988 trial in the US said Pindling was paid $88,000 on the 22nd of each month to protect the Norman's Cay base, and Everette Bannister - who was also indicted in the US for funneling bribes from drug smugglers to Bahamian officials - collected the bribes personally. Here's an excerpt from his son's Senate testimony:

Senator Kerry. Did your father warn Carlos Lehder of the police raid on Norman's Cay?Mr Bannister. Yes.Senator Kerry. Do you want to describe that?Mr Bannister. Well, as I recall, he just made a phone call to Carlos letting him know, well, police are going.Senator Kerry. You heard the phone call?Mr Bannister. Oh, yes, yes, yes yes ... I know my father did call him one time and told him, "Listen, the police are going to raid Norman's Cay on a certain day, clean it up." And when they went there, they didn't find...anything.

When opposition parliamentarian, Norman Solomon, began to complain to Bahamian and US authorities about the situation, his car was blown up. According to Gorman, Lehder boasted about the bombing and Gorman's father, Everette, viewed it as an appropriate response.

All this led to a 1982 meeting between Vice President George H W Bush, US Admiral Daniel Murphy and Prime Minister Pindling, at which the Norman's Cay problem was raised. The Senate report said the vice president showed Pindling a computer printout of CIA surveillance of Norman's Cay and told him the island resembled O'Hare Airport because of its activity.

Lehder also boasted to the Colombian media about his involvement in drug trafficking at Norman's Cay and about giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs to the ruling Progressive Liberal Party. So his operation could hardly have been considered secret. And it was certainly known to Pindling, who as prime minister had regular security meetings with top police officers.

This house of cards came crashing down on September 5, 1983, when NBC News exposed the Norman's Cay scandal and directly implicated the Bahamian government in Lehder's operations. It was the NBC broadcast, and the resulting outcry in the Bahamas, that led to the appointment of the Commission of Inquiry.

Informers for the US Drug Enforcement Administration have also testified that in 1980 and 1981 Pindling spent occasional weekends partying down at Norman's Cay with Lehder and his gang. The CIA was said to be holding the photographic evidence to prove this.

So the story that sparked the recent controversy over Pindling's legacy can hardly be considered "explosive" or "outrageous" today. Even if Sir Lynden was not complicit in the death of Chauncey Tynes Jr, he was certainly a causal factor in a lot of other tragedies across the length and breadth of the Bahamas over many years.

Allyson Maynard Gibson's pretence at shock horror because Sir Lynden's name had been "sullied" and "desecrated" by the recent Tribune article is pure political farce. No matter how you look at it, the corruption of an entire society and generations lost to drug abuse and organised crime are an indelible part of the Pindling legacy. Face it. Deal with it.

The key point for us today is that PLP leaders have never fully digested the lessons from this disastrous period of Bahamian history, which they themselves led. The contradictions within the party arising from the large-scale criminality exposed by multiple investigations have never been dealt with forthrightly. They have simply been brushed under the rug - as the most recent self-righteous outcries from PLP quarters so clearly demonstrate.

And that is precisely why the party is in such a fix today. It lost a large degree of legitimacy and credibility in the 1980s by selling the country out to foreign gangsters. And it wasted a golden opportunity to claw back some of that legitimacy and respect when it was unexpectedly re-elected in 2002.

Although PLP leader Perry Christie was one of three cabinet ministers who initially recoiled at massive official corruption under Pindling's leadership (Hubert Ingraham and Arthur Hanna were the others), he is one of those now trying to avoid dealing with that despicable legacy. And if he doesn't deal with it, who will?

As we said, it is a legacy that has yet to be processed by the PLP. Their strategy is to cling to Pindling's early achievements of majority rule and independence and ignore the rest, in the hope that it will eventually go away as memories fade. This is a public relations scam that will do nothing to resolve the party's inherent contradictions.

Perhaps the best example to draw the point is that of the retired PLP cabinet minister from Exuma who was found to have routinely accepted gifts and payoffs from the Lehder operation and to have been a "lackey" for Everette Bannister (but later acquitted in the courts). He was appointed to a prestigious government job by the Christie administration in 2002 and now submits statesmanlike essays to the press on the future of Exuma, as if the 1970s and 80s had never happened.

And although we can agree that all of us may bear some responsibility for what happened in those days, and all of us may have benefitted to some degree - wittingly or not - it is the handful of men and women who were large and in charge who must accept most of the blame. Many are still around and can easily make their voices heard in the right way.

As we noted in an earlier article on political prospects for the PLP after the 2007 defeat (click here), it has been said that “All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.” It remains to be seen whether the PLP will be able to achieve the fundamental reform that it seems to require, or whether it will fatally choke on its own self-delusion.

Sources: 1984 Commission of Inquiry Report.1988 Report of the US Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations.1988 US State Department Report on International Narcotics Control.1988, The Cocaine Wars, by Paul Eddy, Hugo Sabogal, Sara Walden. Published by W W Norton.1991, Turning the Tide, by Sidney Kirkpatrick and Peter Abrahams, published by Penguin Group.

Comments

Great article Larry. If you happen to speak with Marquis, please thank him for his 'Insight' pieces and for letting the cat out of the hat and starting the discussion. Cheers to you both!

I think 'Get Up, Stand Up' by Bob Marley may be apropos. I have added the lyrics at the bottom for further thought.

Bahamians need to realize that the Pindling legacy is more a question of 'character' than 'race'. The PLP wants Bahamians to believe that it is about 'race' and that the 'father of the nation' was a 'good' man who did nothing but 'good' for his people. This is a gross simplification and tells only 'half' the story. To fight for your rights, you need to know the full story.

Pindling peaceably, constitutionally and with respect for the rule of law, led the noble crusade for democracy and majority rule. That period, from the start of majority rule to the establishment of independence, is most praiseworthy. In fact, the Bahamian transition from white oppression to majority rule, is something that all Bahamians should study with great pride. During the turbulent 60's and 70's, this country achieved a great thing and did so without the interruption of parliament or the constitutional process. It gave the Bahamas a lasting legacy of respect for the rule of law. That tradition needs to be safeguarded, as it is the bedrock of our international standing, but has been slipping of late. Stable politics is built on the rule of law. Stable politics allows for investment, foreign confidence and good relations with the major powers.

By 1975 though, that noble impetus was lost to the all consuming power of the dollar and the drug trade. Pindling clearly began to put private interest above public. Power corrupts and human nature is what it is. It could happen to anyone. It is not race, but character and his character was shown to be deeply flawed. Whether he was white or black was immaterial in light of his actions... and Bahamians need to move away from judging 'black Bahamian actions' and 'white Bahamian actions' and just judging 'Bahamian actions'.

The other day, a Bahamian wrote in to the Tribune that there was no such thing as racism from blacks to others. I laughed and cried at the same time upon reading that. It is pure nonsense to allege something so ridiculous. Racism isn't black or white, it is the simple belief that the 'race' or 'colour of a person's skin/hair/etc' is the starting point for evaluating behaviour. It is the belief that there is some innate, inherent difference between a 'black' and a 'white' or a 'yellow' and a 'red' that allows one to predict or understand their behaviour. This is utter nonsense. For someone to honestly believe that there is 'white behaviour' and 'black behaviour' is the starting point of racism. I just see 'behaviour'. I see 'smart' or 'stupid', 'ignorant' or 'informed', 'well mannered' or 'vulgar'. Those are the REAL categories and that is called CHARACTER.

Most Bahamians seem to operate on that wave length these days, but the PLP and a select few seem to want to keep us in the past, to keep alive the old divides and to exploit those for political gain. The truth about Pindling must be known. Bahamians must be aware that a GREAT MAN, fell so low, so that they understand a simple lesson - it can happen to anyone who loses touch with their values and gets caught up by greed, fast money and the high life.

That is the lesson/legacy of Pindling. A person is defined by their actions, not by their titles or status. Pindling did many good actions, but he did a lot of bad as well. The mature Bahamian will acknowledge both and understand both and watch for 'both' again. Ingraham can't be in power forever, lest the same corruption begin to affect him. That is the whole point of democratic government - to constantly allow for a 'change' in government, so as to prevent that corrupting factor of long held power.

So Bahamians, remember, "none but ourselves can free our minds."

Get Up, Stand Up by RN Marley

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!

Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
half the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: dont give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!

We sick an tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin n goin to heaven in-a jesus name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do? ),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

Yup...a powerful resume of the 1980's...and all true,about that I have no doubt.
My problem was having to deal with Edward St.George who felt that 'Ping' was not involved...he also put it to me that Noriega was free of 'narco-taint'!...unbelievable!
I count myself as one of the 'walking wounded' from the 80's and got targetted by the 'Provisional' PLP.Come mid-1988 it was time to leave Freeport.

Let us be honest. Pindling served himself. It is no surprize to anyone who was around the Bahamas at that time. He used race to blind Bahamians such as the speech "we need to learn what we can from the white man and then throw him out" and other comments to distract from his crooked dealings. He was excellent at using the Bahamian popular "race card" to distact and dupe the average citizen. Let's not forget one of first things he did as prime minister. And that was giving a million Dollar government contract for garbage removal to a relative, remember that? The garbage was never, or very very seldom picked up. That was minor compared to what he did eventually. At some time history will also show that Arthur Hanna was no angel either. No one could be dumb enought to be is his position at that time and not know what was going on. And lets face it. When talking about racism,the people black Bahamians disliked the most where black American tourists, which is understandable because of their treatment of the " inferior natives". Pindlings corruption is nothing new whatsoever. Then and now in the Bahamas and all over the world money is corrupting many. People must accept the fact in order to fix it and not try and make a hero out of a self serving con man like L.O. Pindling.

I'm the grandson of Sir Henry Taylor. I was in the U.S. for much of the time mentioned, so I never got a real picture of what was going on. Your article just made it perfectly clear for me. Brilliantly done.

I felt that during the 1980's with drug was on the rise, that was a ample time for Prime Minister Pindling to go and tell the American Senate that their country was be supplied with drugs from Colombia. He would of been hailed as a hero and viewed differently today. It is sad that he took the easy way out....

The points in your article may be true but equally villianous in Bahamian history is the opression of the masses by the Bay Street Boys.
Interestinly, Mr.Marquis or yourself(I stand to be corrected) have never addressed Sir Stafford Sands and Etienne Dupuch's dealings with Myer Lansky(mafia operative)as it relates to casino gambling in Freeport.
There were probaly a lot of other stuff too nefarious to mention that were illegal that white Bahamian leaders were involved with that the partisan press never address.
For all of your learning I really find you guys extremely partisan,racist and humourous.

The pot calling the kettle black (or white, whatever have you) is great, but the Bahamian people need to move past that. Those issues you have raised have been raised many times before, and by Larry as well. Stafford Sands legacy has been 'disgraced' thoroughly and his 'contribution' put into perspective as well. He is the 'father' of the tourism/banking economic pillars, but he also was a white supremacist and had an imperialistic/colonialist attitude. Those are the facts. Now it is Pindling's turn. His contributions towards majority rule and Independence are unquestioned and need to be remembered, but his drug taint needs to be remembered as well, because it is precisely the lesson that the great can fall and do evil that must be learned and learned well in a democracy. The point is, black or white, hispanic or Asian - it makes no difference - power and money corrupt all alike and we, as Bahamians, need to LEARN and ADOPT that HISTORIC lesson into our psyches and into our culture so as to hold ALL of our leaders, past, current and future, ACCOUNTABLE. History is only useful if it helps to prevent the same mistakes of the past.

The racism and greed that poisoned Sir Stafford is the same evil that poisoned Sir LOP. Bahamians need to learn that that evil sees no colour and knows no cultural barriers. It is ready to infect anyone at anytime and we must be vigilant to ensure that it doesn't set hold in our democracy, because that is the single greatest threat to our peace, prosperity and happiness - our lack of vigilance towards our politicians - no matter their race or creed - and their lack of accountability - no matter their race or creed. Human behaviour is human behaviour - colour doesn't make it anything different. Each person has strengths and weaknesses, great contributions to make and terrible short comings, we must be wise to that fact and look for the leaders who have the best balance and inner strength to guard against it themselves.

Have you done a story on Lighthouse point In eleuthera... Have you seen the plans of development of Jorge Perez Developer in Miami that is in debt by millions.. www lighthousebahamas.com/brochure.html you will see the before and then go to his map after.... Heleport and marines.. will distroy this Jewel that will never be again.. it needs to be a national park... but what does one do..

What, specifically, do you think is 'bad' about Marquis and his writing? I don't think he is the best writer per se, but I think he has done a tremendous service to this country over the past 25 years. We actually have a decent newspaper for a Banana Republic in the sun. I am genuinely most curious.

Also, as far as things go, the Tribune, while far from perfect, has done the most, as an institution, to make sure that our politicians and officials are on the straight and narrow. In theory, they are supposed to do it to one another - that is the whole idea of a Westminster parliament. These good ole' boys, again - black or white - makes little difference - don't really go at each other though. At least, not until there is some real blood in the water and it is obvious that the people are demanding action. Then, they know they better scapegoat someone and they do. If it wasn't for the Tribune, I shudder to think where we would be culturally, spiritually and politically in this Bahamaland of ours. Don't you? Again, I am genuinely curious. Can you think of another check on power that comes even close to what the Tribune has done? I can't. The Punch isn't taken seriously, the opposition (PLP or FNM) of the day is always indulging in hot air and dreaming of retaking power, but never does so in any substantive way, since neither party likes to tackle the REAL issues: education, the economy, the back log of the courts, corruption and tax/debt reduction programs. The church in this country has long since become either money making or power hungry - and more than not - in bed with the political class. So, what other institution could you suggest or recommend?